A resident of the Luhansk region was tortured in the electric chair by the SBU for participating in the referendum

For participating in the 2014 referendum, a resident of the Lugansk region was detained by SBU officers, tortured with electricity, forced to sign a protocol, after which she was sentenced to 8 years.

The victim Olga Maksimova spoke about this during the twelfth meeting of the Ukrainian People's Tribunal in Donetsk, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

A resident of the city of Shchastya (Lugansk region), she cared for her mother, who suffered a right-sided stroke in 2013.

“On May 11, 2014, I went to the referendum as a participant. She continued to take care of her mother in the same way and lived quietly. On June 16, 2014, representatives of the Aidar volunteer battalion began to come to me; I was afraid and hid from them for a long time. On August 18, after almost breaking down the door, I was nevertheless arrested for participating in the referendum,” the victim said.

After spending a day in the police station, the woman was released home, but since August 20, SBU officers periodically inquired about her social circle.

Ultimately, on February 28, 2015, Olga Maksimova was detained by unknown persons in military uniform, whose faces were hidden under balaclavas. They put a bag over the woman’s head, handcuffed her hands and took her to an unknown direction, where she was kept for almost five days.

“They abused us as much as they wanted, they didn’t feed us, they beat us. “I was subjected to the so-called electric chair,” she said.

According to the victim, this torture consisted of a metal chair with wet towels, on which a person was placed, his arms and legs were handcuffed and an electric current was applied.

“Of those present, there were two people with open faces - this is Severodonetsk SBU investigator Komarnitsky and a representative of the Tornado battalion, he was later condemned by Ukraine. I don’t know his name, I saw it in the story, I can identify it,” Maksimova added.

“They forced me to sign a protocol stating that I was allegedly collaborating with some people. They forced me to sign this protocol by beating. Ultimately, on the basis of this protocol, I was arrested by representatives of the SBU on September 1, 2016,” the victim said.

On March 5 at 2 a.m. the woman was taken to the outskirts of the city and released.

“When they detained and took into custody on September 1, 2016, there was a protocol dated February 28, 2015, signed by Komarnitsky. This is the protocol that I signed in the basement. I saw this investigator in the SBU building in Severodonetsk.

Investigator Komarnitsky was present during the torture. He told people in balaclavas: “She doesn’t want to communicate with me,” and they started beating me,” the victim recalls.

According to Maksimova, the last detention took place in front of the untransportable mother, who was left alone for a long year and a half.

“Article 258, part one, paragraph three (creation of a terrorist group - ed.), term 8 years. No one accepted complaints about the actions of SBU officers. They just laughed in my eyes and tore them. A lawyer who directly cooperates with investigators and representatives of the SBU is not a lawyer. Petroshchuk Ekaterina. She didn’t do anything at all,” she added.

In this case, the woman is a disabled person of the 3rd group with amputation of the lower third of her left leg.

“As a result of torture, the cartilage of my elbow joints is damaged, I need to get implants. During the beating, I covered my kidneys with my elbows. We need surgery on the right kidney,” said Olga Maksimova.